The moment my wife gives Ruby her back, Ruby's expression changes. She's less pained now, less fearful, but still angry and afraid, though. Not a foot in front of the tub, in the small bathroom, in the dingy motel, Ruby focuses her fierce brown eyes on mine. Reaching up, she grabs Esmeralda by the neck, produces a .22 from the back of her jeans, and pushes the barrel into the side of my wife's head.
"Put my son down or she's dead."
"You won't kill her," I say. My blades dances along Ian's skin from his ear to his mouth. The cut isn't nearly as deep as the first one, but it, too, will scar.
"Put him down!" Ruby's scream is that of a murderous lioness whose found her next meal. If I actually cared about my wife, I would be afraid. Ruby may not be the same kind of monster I am, but she's wild and unbroken. Until now. This is breaking her. Ruby could take a life--I just don't think she can take her sister's. Not even if she knew the real reason we're here.
"Kill her." A slow, callous smile creeps to my lips. The slack-jawed horror that finds its way to Ruby's face is priceless. She can't believe what I'm saying, but that's because she doesn't know her twin the way I do. She has no clue what lurks beneath the surface. I'm a monster, but her sister is a fucking beast.
"I'll keep them safe," Esmeralda says in that soft voice of hers. That soft, manipulative voice that makes you believe she is only ever gentle and passive. "I'll keep their names--Michael and Alexandra--I'll make sure they have the best life possible. Please. If you kill me, Carlo will kill you, and your babies won't have even a piece of either of us."
Ruby flinches. Her grip on the gun wavers, and even though I could live in utter fucking peace as a widower, I would have to kill Ruby, and I really don't want to have to do that. My father would demand to see the body. So, in an effort to speed things up, I wrap my hand around Ian's neck and start to squeeze. His cries are intense, and so is the jerking of his body.
"You can't have both, tesoro. It's Ian or the twins."
Ruby looks back at the babies in the tub, still wailing, and sobs a goodbye. She unloads the ammo from her .22 and drops it on the floor. Everything is so anticlimactic. Her movements are robotic, her expression dead. I want to say I almost feel bad for her, but I don't. I feel fucking awful, like a damn truck has run me over and then backed up just got good measure. She's no longer wild, no longer broken. This is devastation in a way I've never seen it before. When she's unarmed, she raises her hands in the air and focuses on Ian, telling him it's going to be okay. I back out of the room first and then direct her out of the bathroom and onto the bed. I'm still clutching the small, bloody boy. His cries are weakening, and the tension in his body is going slack. I've never hurt a kid before. We're not supposed to. I think he might be in shock, but what the fuck do I know?
After a minute, Esmeralda comes out of the bathroom, holding both babies in her arms. The smile on her face is undeniable even though she's trying to hide it. She has what she wants now, so maybe she'll be more tolerable. Probably not, but even condemned men can have some hope. My bitch wife takes the children to where Benny stands at the open door and whispers something in his ear before stepping around him and exiting the room completely. She disappears with a few clicks of her heels on the concrete.
I don't wait even a moment to let Ian go. He stumbles forward but loses his balance. With my open palm to the top of his back, I help him in his mother's direction with a slight shove. Ruby leaps forward and catches her boy. She grips his loose body with a ferocity I don't understand. She's a mother in a way I'm not a father. She's got years under her belt. I've barely gotten a good look at the twins in weeks. They probably look different than they did at the hospital. I don't fucking know. Not that looking at their faces would trigger some kind of parental instinct in me or something. Maybe they'll grow on me. If I'm lucky, our daughter will grow up to look nothing like her mother. Then, maybe, I'll be able to forget her fucking face.
"Hey, Benny," I call out, not moving from my spot.
He turns around. His eyebrows are raised, and he stares at me casually, like there's not a small child bleeding all over the place and a woman in hysterics. That's Benny for you. He's a good guy. He's the best of this thing we got. Never lets me down.
"Yeah, Boss," he says with a head nod in my direction.
"What'd my wife tell you on her way out?"
He shrugs his shoulders--his tell--and shakes his head. "Nothing," he says. "She let me know she was heading to the car."
Benny's the best of us. His only flaw is the weak spot he has for my wife. Lord only knows the lengths he'll go for her. And I can't have somebody more loyal to her than to me.
"Cover his ears." My eyes are fixed on Ruby as she follows my instructions and cradles her boy in her lap, covering his ears and face as best she can.
Benny blinks, and it's only half a second later that his face shows the alarm I've been waiting for.